


Before we're over and done

by barkspawnvevo



Series: Conquer the stars [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 12:27:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4059985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barkspawnvevo/pseuds/barkspawnvevo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events on Horizon from a different POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before we're over and done

**Author's Note:**

> The title lyrics are from Amaranthe's Over and Done. It is my ultimate "Shepard and Kaidan in ME2" -song.

KAIDAN  
He couldn't believe what was happening. Just a minute ago he had woken up from some sort of stasis the Collectors attacking the colony of Horizon had put him into. After waking up, he had heard sounds of battle from the closed courtyard in the center of the colony. He had tried to get from the courtyard from the main building, only to discover that all of the electronic locks on the doors had been closed shut by the emergency protocols. He had ran to upstairs to a massive window overlooking the courtyard, and what he saw was something unbelievable: he saw a ghost. That was the only logical option. Why else would he see her fighting out there, firing her gun and wrapped in a glowing blue barrier? He though that the overwhelming stress of seeing the colonists disappear around him added to the whatever substance the Collectors used to freeze their would-be-victims cause him to hallucinate and those hallucinations appeared to him in a  form of Claire Shepard. He knew for a fact that Claire was dead: Joker had told Kaidan that she had given her life to save Joker's as the Normandy SR-1 had went down. Kaidan had felt like the world had crumbled around him. They had just found each other and after only a couple of months they were already separated for the rest of his life. He had been angry without even being certain of who he was angry at: whatever had attacked the Normandy,  Joker for not abandoning the ship in time and forcing Claire to rush and save him or himself for leaving the ship after evacuating the crew. The painful memory of the last time he had seen her made him clench his fist and shut his eyes. _Snap out of it._ When he opened his eyes, the ghost was still there, fighting with the style he had come to know so well during their shared assignment on the Normandy. But there were others with her as well. People he didn't know. An old male soldier with a shotgun and young tattooed woman without any sort of armor on her. Why was he hallucinating about someones he didn't even know? 

Suddenly the ghost rose her weapon up and shot towards the sky where a massive alien ship was taking off. Kaidan could hear the electronic lock opening downstairs and he ran outside to see he was wrong about the ghost. He knew that seeing the empty courtyard would set his mind at least a bit more ease.  As he reached the courtyard, one of the colonists was raging to the ghost who was still standing there. "They got everybody! Why didn't you do anything?" the colonist yelled. _Does he see ghosts too?_ To Kaidan's suprise the ghost answered back. _Could it be.. No, it can't. How?_ "Who do you think you are?" the colonist asked, spitting his words on the ghost's face. Kaidan stepped out behind a wall he had been observing the situation. "Commander Shepard. Captain of the Normandy. The first human Spectre. The hero of the battle of the Citadel". _The love of my life._ The clonist mumbled his disapproval how all of the good people had been taken and Kaidan had been left behind, but Kaidan couldn't care less. He walked to Claire and closed her in his arms. How he had missed her. How holding her felt like he had found the missing pieces of his puzzle. "Where have you been?" he asked her silently, breathing in her scent. She was silent for a while but then answered with "Unconcious". They broke out of the embrace, leving their hands still lingering tangled to each other.  "That's not an answer", he pointed out. Claire bit her lip thoughtfully. "I was in a come while Cerberus rebuilt me for the last two years. And now.. I'm working with them", she answered. Kaidan pulled his hand away from hers. "You're with Cerberus?". A helpless expression appeared on Claire's face. "You have to understand, I had no choice! They saved my life, gave me a new Normandy and an opportunity to save the human colonies!" she yelled, choking on her words. "You sure did a marvelous job with this one!" Kaidan shouted, regretting his words immediately. "No.. Sorry, I didn't mean that", he said but Claire already looked like somebody had slapped her in the face. "I loved you. You died", he said. "Now you come here and tell me you're working with Cerberus. What do you expect me to think?". "Look, I understand that you're angry and this all must seem insane to you. But come with me. We could work this out. It could once again be like the old times", she said with tears in her eyes. "It would not. I will never work for Cerberus", he answered and began to walk away. Just before reaching the door to the colony's main building, he turned around. "Take care, Claire".

Once inside, he breathed out heavily and leaned his back against the door. He could hear the shuttle arriving to the yard. He figured that that was the one with what Claire and her team left. _I should call the Alliance for a pickup._ He knew that there was still lot to do: he had to go through all of the buildings in the colony for remaining colonists, he had to gather his thing from the room he had lived in and so on. But there was one thing he knew he had to first. He opened the comm terminal and started writing a new message.  
To: Commander Claire Shepard  
From: Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko  
Subject: About Horizon  
  
CLAIRE  
She was sitting on her bed in the Normandy's captain's quarters. After the debriefing she had requested a moment alone.  She had been thinking about the times on Normandy SR-1.  About Pressly's growing lack of disgust towards the alien crew members, about all the missions they had done with the ship and on top of it all, she was thinking about Kaidan. She didn't want to believe what had happened on Horizon true. There were so many things she had wanted to say, but there wasn't a chance to do so, like how she had wanted to contact him the moment she woke up but it wasn't possible, how she didn't work for Cerberus and it was just a temporary alliance to fight a bigger threat. She punched her pillow out of frustration. "Damn you Alenko, why do you have to be so stubborn?".  A sudden chime from her private terminal caught her attention. She walked to the terminal and noticed that she had gotten a message from Kaidan. She opened the meassage and a small smile crept up on her lips as she read the last lines: "And maybe when this is all over.. I don't know. Please stay safe, for my sake".


End file.
